Linkbar

Banana-Pistachio Bonbons & Chocolate Pudding

April 19, 2007

Or..."monkeying around instead of finishing my spring cleaning"... according to B.

Right then I lifted my eyebrows and replied "well then, if this is monkeying around I am sure you won't care if I eat it all ..."

I have never seen a man picking up a vacuum cleaner faster than he did when he saw what I had just pulled out of the oven! Up until know I had never seen the necessity to re-arrange our cleaning responsabilities so why do it now..."I feed you honey, give you clean clothes and love you, darling...Keep vacuuming"

A conversation on the state of the pantry and the fridge with my dear friend C. made me realize it was about time to organize my shelves again and use the (many) items i had bought for a particular recipe that I had never gotten around to make or that left me with extra "stuff" such spices, flours, extracts and in this case spring roll wrappers (scroll down to the bottom of the link) and plenty of fine chocolate needing to be used!

I had bananas getting tired of staring at us day after day, pistachios about to take a trip to the neighbors' because they were feeling abandoned, and wrappers about to get as wrinkly as prunes, and plenty of chocolate to share the love.

I decided to make little banana packets with the spring roll dough and I shaped them into candy wrappers, baked them and served with some form of chocolate... When I usually make them, I use vanilla beans cut in half lengthwise to tied the ends but I did not feel like using my precious loot on a casual weeknight dinner.Instead of making my staple chocolate sauce of heavy cream, chocolate and spat of butter (which works great as an impromptu fondue), I decided to make B.'s childhood favorite: chocolate pudding. I grew up on mousse, he loves his mama's pudding...except dear mother-in-law never seems to find the recipe...I got inspired by this one from Gourmet Magazine, and the serving amount was perfect for 2, no sharing...!

Peel the bananas and cut them into small cubes, add the lemon juice.Lay a wrapper down on a clean cutting board, brush with some melted butter, sprinkle with 1 Tb of sugar, add 3 Tb or so of diced banana, add 1 Tb of pistachios. Roll the wrapper into a log and secure the ends with kitchen strings or vanilla bean (cut in half and soften if necessary), to form a candy wrapper type package.Repeat with the remaining ingredients and bake for 10-20 minutes or until golden brown.Let cool to room temperature.

In a heavy saucepan whisk together sugar, cornstarch. Add chocolate and cocoa powder to sugar mixture.In a bowl whisk together milk and egg yolk and gradually whisk into chocolate mixture. Bring mixture just to a boil over moderate heat, whisking constantly, and boil 1 minute, whisking. Remove pan from heat and whisk in butter and vanilla.Divide pudding between two 8-ounce ramekins. Chill puddings in freezer, surfaces covered with plastic wrap, until cooled, about 30 minutes.

I regret I did not make more for tonight...the wrappers are good any time of the day, cold-warm-hot. And the pudding....I scored major points with B. Good I have got a birthday coming up!

I just discovered the joys of chocolate pudding last night....and here you are tempting me with another recipe ;)(my recipe was taken from Williams Sonoma, Cooking for yourself...which was eggless but still gave me the perfect consistency)

Haha! That is a great bribe Helene! Will have to see if it works on my man!! And I totally relate to buying items for recipes and then forgetting to make them. Glad to hear I am not the only one out there ;-)Now to your recipe. I am flabbergasted this is a mighty amazing combo. Those bonbons look really good. Can I have one? I'll do the dusting for that!

So chocolate pudding can be used as a bribe to get the husband to vacuum - um I wonder how I didn't think of that. Now I understand where you find the time to turn our all this fantastic goodies.Now, what is it with this mother in law who won't share her chocolate pudding recipe with you.I'm entranced with the bonbons and pudding as fondue sauce!

Oh Helen, these sound wonderful! The bonbons are beautiful, and you are so resourceful to use up all of those goodies in such a tempting fashion. The chocolate pudding recipe sounds simple, but decadent!

If you ever feel the need to get rid of high quality chocolate, I'm available. And if you need help eating your creations, I'm available. And if you just want someone to loaf around your house and pester you to make more delicious treats, I'm available.